Ant-Man director Peyton Reed on “strange, weird, grotesque” MODOK
The popular comic book villain is making his MCU debut in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
A lot of the build-up ahead of the release of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was focused on the introduction of major villain Kang the Conqueror to the franchise – but he's not the only iconic comic book antagonist to appear in the Phase 5 opener.
There's also a key role in the film for zany baddie MODOK, a mad scientist whose full name is Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing, and who has long been a favourite of Marvel fans.
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The surreal character is played by Corey Stoll – who you'll remember previously played Darren Cross in the first Ant-Man film – and director Peyton Reed has explained how he loved bringing the “strange, weird, grotesque” figure to the big screen.
"I loved it, it seems MODOK has been talked about for some time [and] it felt like the Ant-Man movies might be the perfect tonal place to introduce a live-action MODOK," he explained in an exclusive interview with RadioTimes.com. "And then when we hit on the idea of who MODOK turns out to be in the MCU that just made sense to us."
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Reed continued that given there had been a lot of different animated versions of the character over the years, he really wanted his version of MODOK to stand out – partly by living up to his name.
"I wanted to do something where you introduce him in the movie and you do make good on the Mechanised Organism Designed Only for Killing and you see him laying waste to people, but then you reveal who he actually is and it can turn a little bit comedic," he said.
"In any version, MODOK is just a strange, weird, grotesque character!"
Warning: the video below contains spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is released in UK cinemas on Friday 17th February. Watch the Marvel movies in order on Disney Plus – sign up to Disney Plus for £7.99 a month or £79.90 for a year
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
